Online privacy

The security and privacy landscape has continued to evolve since NTIA first asked about it in the 2015 Internet Use Survey. High-profile data breaches and debates about the role of technology in people’s lives have kept concerns about privacy and security in the forefront. The spread of emerging technologies such as smart home devices and always-on voice assistants, as well as business models predicated on the collection, use, and sale of personal information, means these concerns have taken on increased urgency.

The Federal Trade Commission may soon initiate a rulemaking that would allow the agency to take punitive action against tech companies for abuses of customers’ privacy and civil rights. The FTC made the announcement in a regulatory filing as part of its statement of regulatory priorities, The tweak would be meant to “curb lax security practices, limit privacy abuses, and ensure that algorithmic decision-making does not result in unlawful discrimination,” the agency said. This

President Biden opened the first-ever Summit for Democracy, a forum for leaders from around the world to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing democracies in the 21st century. These efforts will center on five areas of work crucial to the functioning of transparent, accountable governance: 1) Supporting Free and Independent Media, 2) Fighting Corruption, 3) Bolstering Democratic Reformers, 4) Advancing Technology for Democracy, and 5) Defending Free and Fair Elections and Political Processes. Specifically:

The launch of President Biden's Alliance for the Future of the Internet has now been delayed after civil society activists and even some officials in the US government raised concerns that the new initiative would draw scarce resources away from existing fora dedicated to the advancement of internet freedom, deepen distrust between like-minded actors, and undermine the digital rights of those who live in repressive societies.

Verizon is automatically enrolling customers in a new version of a program that scans mobile users' browser histories—even when those same users previously opted out of the program when it had a different name. The carrier recently announced changes to its "Verizon Selects" program along with a new name. "Verizon Custom Experience Plus is the new name of our Verizon Selects program," Verizon said in a FAQ.

The White House is set to announce plans for its much-anticipated Alliance for the Future of the Internet, a bid to rally a coalition of democracies around a vision for an open and free web.

The Biden administration is launching its first big effort on privacy policy by looking at how data privacy issues affect civil rights. An administration perspective on privacy policy could be key in developing a long-awaited national privacy law by putting the White House stamp on how to regulate privacy.

Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) reintroduced the Online Privacy Act, legislation that creates user data rights, places limitations and obligations on companies collecting and using user data, and establishes the Digital Privacy Agency (DPA) to enforce privacy laws. The updated legislation includes several improved provisions and additional privacy protections, including adding an Office of Civil Rights in the DPA and authorizing state privacy regulators to enforce the legislation alongside state attorneys general. Major provisions of the Online Privacy Act include:

Among the key provisions of the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden is $65 billion that will be dedicated to improving access to reliable high-speed internet. This new law aimed at closing the digital divide also should be used to close the digital privacy divide — the gap between more personal information being stored and shared and the level of privacy protection for online users that is provided to them.

Congress will reconvene in mid-November to discuss Democratic lawmakers’ massive social spending proposal, the Build Back Better Act, which is poised to provide a historic funding boost to regulators who police the technology sector for privacy, competition and consumer protection abuses, among other key initiatives. Key provisions in the latest version of the bill aim to: